All language subtitles for Gone.The.Forgotten.Women.Of.Ohio.S01E05.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV

**

Berlinger: In the small town
of Chillicothe, Ohio,

six women have gone missing,

young mothers caught
in a vicious cycle of addiction

and prostitution.

Four of them have
turned up dead.

Woman: I found a woman's body
in the creek.

Berlinger: I'm Joe Berlinger.

I'm a documentary filmmaker
and an activist.

I'm working with forensic
analyst Angela Clemente

and retired FBI agent
Steve Bongardt...

I'd really like
to talk to you.

...to find out what happened
to these women.

We got to get justice.

All of us in here
have to get justice.

Berlinger: At first,
our investigation

focused on the six women
from Chillicothe.

All the girls that have
been found missing,

Dollar Bill knew
every one of them.

This thing is getting
beyond Chillicothe.

**

Now, we're investigating
two more missing women's cases

with eerily
similar circumstances

in yet another Ohio city.

In Columbus, victims of
human trafficking

reveal a brutal reality...

Woman: He thought he was losing
his grip on me,

so he tattooed "Property
of" his name above my vagina.

What that meant is,
"If you go anywhere else,

we'll put you in a Dumpster."

Berlinger: ...and share
firsthand accounts

of sexual exploitation

by those sworn to protect.

All of my clients
were police officers,

firefighters, pastors, lawyers.

Beyond closed doors, I was being
trafficked to all of these men

who were the very ones
who were supposed to protect me.

Berlinger:
Could some in law enforcement

have an ulterior motive
for letting these cases go cold?

Ruth: There's somebody out there
that knows what went on,

but they just won't tell
because they're scared.

Magill:
So we pray, "Our Father..."

Heather:
He put the gun to my chest,
and he said, "Live or die."

Landrum:
Everybody who knows information
that tries to come out

and talk about it,
they end up dead.

Coleman: He gave her
a hot shot of heroin.

Kellough: And I said,
"I know who your son is

and I know what he did, too."

Sam: If she's out there,
please just let her go

[Echoing]
and let her come home.

**

Berlinger: To move this
investigation forward,

we have to get past
people's fear of talking.

At a successful rehab program
in southern Ohio, Freedom Hall,

recovering addicts
and former prostitutes

share struggles similar
to those of the victims

we are investigating.

-Hi.
-Hi, there.

-Hey.
-How are you?

Good.
How are you?

-Wonderful.
-Hey. I'm Joe.

Nice to meet you, sir.
Angie Pelphrey.

So nice to meet you.

We're a long-term
in-patient facility

for men and women with drug
and alcohol dependency.

Over the past few years,
we've been able to take in

a lot of females
of human trafficking.

A lot of the missing
and dead women around here,

do you think
this addiction problem

is connected to it?

I do personally,
yes.

Everyone around here
is saying,

"Everything is due to the power
and the drugs and money."

We're trying to shine
a light on this.

Yes, absolutely.

**

I'm investigating the women

that have been missing
and turning up dead.

What does everybody think
is going on here?

I completely understand
why people would not want

to talk about it
because you're vulnerable.

But I commend all of you because
you've all come a long way

of getting out of addiction,

getting out of prostitution.

You know, my story
was similar in the sense.

I did not get involved
in any drugs,

but I grew up
in a really terrible childhood.

I was physically abused
and sexually abused at age 11.

My mother worked in a bar,

so people that she would
bring home would end up,

you know, using me.

I had consistently been

just passed around to whomever.

Some of them were
law enforcement,

and I, you know, as a child,

you don't think a police officer

is gonna do something
so bad to you,

but in my case,
that did happen,

but I was too afraid
to speak out.

**

And then I said,
"This is enough.

You know, what is wrong
with people?

I'm not gonna have this."

And I fought back,

and I decided to
start helping other victims.

I've worked as far as up with
the White House, with Congress.

I just wouldn't shut up, and all
of you can do the same thing,

every one of you.

With regard to some of the johns
that you would be in touch with,

did you guys ever encounter
anyone in law enforcement?

-Greatly, yeah.
-Yeah.

It goes on a lot
in Portsmouth.

-In Portsmouth?
-Yeah.

Livingston: You may not have
seen it, you know, firsthand,

face-to-face,
but it's known,

public officials
that are into drug use

or that are into
the prostitution.

Portsmouth
is a small town,

and you can't walk
into the courthouse

and not run into
somebody you used with,

bought from, or sold to.

**

Girls go missing.

Nobody
bats an eyelash about it.

Why is there
no investigation?

Why didn't
anybody get arrested?

Megan Lancaster
out of Portsmouth,

she was one of the first
that we had heard about.

Berlinger:
On April 3rd, 2013,

25-year-old Megan Lancaster

goes missing
from Portsmouth, Ohio.

Megan's family had said
they're not sure

why the law enforcement
won't do more,

you know, kind of like
she was swept under the rug.

Megan Lancaster, a young mother
suffering from addiction,

seems to fit the same profile

as the eight other missing women
from Columbus and Chillicothe.

We wonder, is there
any connection

between Megan's disappearance

and the other missing women?

Portsmouth lies just one hour
south of Chillicothe.

We decided to drive
down Route 23,

the so-called Heroin Highway,

to find out more.

**

Portsmouth is considered
to be the center

of America's opiate epidemic.

Once home to
the nation's largest

concentration of pill mills,

dubious clinics that hand out
prescriptions for a profit,

some doctors
and pharmaceutical companies

helped hook a generation
on pain medication.

Ohio back a few years ago
shut down the pill mills.

What happened is
heroin took off.

You see heroin coming in.

23 is still one of the main
routes through this area.

What they call the 23 pipeline,

at one time,
that meant crack cocaine

from Columbus to southern Ohio.

Now it means heroin.

It's everywhere.

Berlinger: To find out more
about Megan Lancaster,

we spend time with Zanobi,

a transgender heroin addict

who prostitutes
to support her habit.

Zanobi: Just feel bad,
feeling terrible.

I'm hot and cold, sweats.

My stomach hurts, feel like
I'm gonna throw up.

Berlinger: So is that
what's called dope sick?

Dope sick -- skin crawling,
shaking.

**

Did you know Megan Lancaster,
the woman who went missing?

Yes.

You know, from one trick
to another trick,

we all hang
in the same circle.

We all talk to each other.
You know what I'm saying?

**

Just don't follow
too close to me.

Don't make it look obvious
that you're following me either

'cause then I'm not gonna be
able to, you know, work.

**

What did he say to you
when you got in the car?

I'm walking around,
and he pulls up

and asks if I needed a ride.

I said, "Yeah,"
so I got in the car.

He asked if we could
have sex for $50.

I told him, no,
that was too cheap.

I said if he can get a blow job

for $50,
a quick blow job for $50,

and that's what he got.

So you're gonna go look
for some heroin now?

Yes. Yes. I'm gonna go
try to get my fix, find it.

I'm nervous though just in case
if my dope dealer rides by,

I don't want him to see
the cameras and stuff.

**

So I went and got my heroin.

I have a gram,
which is $100.

That gonna last you
the day or...

No.

It only, you know, keep me well
for a couple of hours.

I'm gonna climb
through the window

and do it in there,
so that way,

the wind doesn't
blow away my dope

'cause then I'll be
extremely pissed.

Put my dope in my spoon.

Add my water.

**

Do you ever get worried
that you're gonna die?

Absolutely. I worry that
I'm gonna to die every day.

I say my little prayer
and, you know, ask God to,

you know,
cover me and stuff.

**

Is this
what you do every day?

Yes, this is what I do
every day, all day, all night.

What kind of life
is that?

It's a crappy life.

It's a terrible life,
takes your soul.

**

So, Zanobi, can you now
tell me about Megan Lancaster?

Well, I grew up with her.

She was a really nice girl.

We was good kids,
and she never did anything,

but growing up, like,
she got hooked on drugs.

I guess some things, you know,
happened with her.

What do you think
happened to her?

Well, no one really
knows how she died,

but everyone knows
that the police

had something to do
with Megan Lancaster's death.

**

We are going to see
Kadie Lancaster,

Megan Lancaster's
sister-in-law.

**

Kadie.
-Hi.

-Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you, too.

Angela Clemente.

You were Megan's best friend.
-Yes.

And you've known her
for how long?

Lancaster:
About 13 years.

Megan and I were inseparable,
two peas in a pod.

There was a lot
to love about Megan.

She was caring, outgoing.

She'd give you her last dollar

if she thought
she could help somebody.

Megan had Reese three months
into her senior year.

Megan was very,
very excited to be a mom.

Her dream
was to raise her baby

and, you know,
be a good mother.

She loved him
with all of her heart.

Why do you think
she began taking drugs?

Did she ever
tell you why?

Yeah,
cover up the pain.

In what sense?

From what?

Sexual abuse.

From what age?

I don't know.

I can't get anybody else
to talk about it,

but it's awful.

**

Megan was shooting up?

-Yes.
-Okay.

And what was her drug of choice?
-Oxycontin.

-Always? Okay.
-Yeah.

So, does she have
any convictions?

She has
a trespassing conviction

and
a drug-abuse conviction.

And what exactly
did that mean, trespassing?

A.K.A. soliciting.

Okay.
So prostitution?

-Yeah.
-Okay.

Berlinger:
Like the other victims,

Megan's addiction eventually
leads her to prostitution.

Man: Megan was 25 when her
family last heard from her.

Her car was found in the parking
lot of a Portsmouth Rally's.

Megan's 9-year-old son
is just one of the people

wondering what happened to her.

**

So, do you feel
she's deceased?

Do you think
that she's alive?

That's a very hard
question to answer.

Okay?

I just know this.

I'll bring her home
whatever way that it is.

**

Berlinger: Tell me what
you think happened to Megan.

My theory on the case
is that she was taken

by some really [bleep]
up individuals.

I have studied
human trafficking.

Megan is the type of girl
that sells -- petite, blonde.

If they're not going
for the 11- to 15-year-olds,

then it's the 18-
to 30-year-olds,

so I know,
for all of these women,

the clock is ticking,

and it's ticking fast.

When they hit 30...

When they hit 30,
they're done.

They're done.

**

Here's her apartment building
right here next door.

The first two days
of her disappearance,

the police went
in Megan's apartment.

They go in the bathroom.

They pull two hairs
out of her hairbrush,

and they leave and said,
"Crime scene cleared."

So I go in and go to work.

I found needles, drugs...

-Oh.
-...dirty syringes,

clothes with blood on it.

They didn't even
take that...

-Wow.
-...into evidence.

Okay.

Wow. Okay.

Megan, she was a lost kid.

We know she was having
some rough time,

going through a hard time
in her life.

She just, all of a sudden,
disappeared.

She hasn't been seen
or heard from since.

Berlinger: Is her case still
being actively investigated?

Yes. Yes.

You know, it's just
a slow process.

Could she have been abducted
for human trafficking?

I don't think
that was the case with her,

human trafficking.

You know, my opinion of her
the time that I encountered her

was she wasn't at
that point in her life

where that was gonna
happen to her.

It was that lifestyle
that got her involved in

wherever she ended up,
wherever she is now.

-Kadie Lancaster...
-Mm-hmm.

...Megan's sister-in-law,

is that someone
you've ever talked to?

We've had a couple
of interactions, and, you know,

I try to understand
where she's coming from,

but sometimes
she takes the rumors she hears

and runs too far with them.

And, you know, she does
damage to herself.

**

I started thinking, like,
"What can I do to make sure

that we preserve something

that could be
beneficial later on?"

I was thinking if we needed
scent dogs, you know,

any kind of thing like that,

they would need
something with scent,

so I went for her bra,

and it's been in my freezer
for 3 1/2 years.

I didn't touch it.

I used a plastic bag, put it in.

I got this out of her dirty
clothes at her apartment,

and I've opened the bag,
like, once,

and it still smells
just like her.

It's very sad to have to look
at things in your freezer

that could possibly belong
to your dead best friend.

Kadie, have the police
told you anything

about their investigation?

Oh.

The police haven't told us
any freaking thing ever.

I mean, they've never
told us anything, just,

"We're working on it,
and we know nothing new."

They say everybody
has a purpose in life,

and everything happens
for a reason.

When Megan went missing,

what made me reflect back
on my childhood

and all the tragedy in my life.

By the age of 12,

I had lost four of the most
important people in my life.

I know now why God put me
through what I went through,

you know,
and it was so that I can,

and I will be able to give Reese

either his mommy back

or be able to give him
an answer.

**

This is Megan's car
that was found

at Rally's Hamburger
in Portsmouth, Ohio.

The car was parked in a hurry

because one tire was up
on the curb behind a bush

and not even straight,

and Megan would have never
parked her car like that.

I am sure that tells a story.

This car had been sitting
at Rally's for two days,

and my mother-in-law
and father-in-law

just had it towed here,

where it's sat
for six long months.

**

They just showed up one day

and said that they were here
to pick up her car

and that they were taking it
for evidence finally.

Over here, her wallet
was found right here,

and it was left open.

Also, if you notice
how far this seat is back,

this has never been touched.

Megan was 5'5" to 5'6".

This is too long for her
to reach the pedal.

I don't believe that she drove
the car to the hamburger place,

to Rally's in Portsmouth
that night.

Truthfully, I believe
a man drove it.

**

Berlinger: Kadie believes that

the delays in
processing evidence

may have hindered efforts
to find Megan.

Lancaster: This scares me.

I wonder, if murdered,
did she suffer?

If kidnapping,
is she still suffering?

I feel that it's, like, a race
against the clock to find her.

Berlinger:
We discover Megan did leave

one important piece
of evidence behind.

On the love seat
in very plain sight,

I found all of her papers,

papers that told a lot.

**

Berlinger: For the past 4 years,

Kadie Lancaster feels
she has been working alone,

hunting for answers about what
happened to her sister-in-law.

Kadie shows us
a collection of papers

she found in Megan's apartment.

What it says is, "Contact
if anything shall happen to me."

You find these papers.

How many about?

A lot,
like, probably 100 or so.

I've organized them
since.

When I got all of this,

it was all
overwhelming at first.

Like, she was literally
documenting her life

for those last couple months,

and I don't know why.

Do you think
that she was worried

about her safety at some point?

Yes.

So, you found phone numbers
with codes in it and...

They were color-coded.

Okay. This one is
in a brown-ish color.

This one
is in a bluish color.

This one
is in a pink color.

And you start looking
at the phone numbers.

-Yes.
-You do a reverse search.

-Yeah, a number search.
-Phone search? Okay.

And a lot of them,
I could just find them,

and they would come up.

Up here in the red,

we have kind of
smaller drug dealers.

Here are your bigger
drug dealers.

The customers
are over here.

This says, "Numbers from men
who give money for dances."

In meticulous detail,
these pages list

the alleged drug dealers
Megan bought from

and the johns
she tricked with.

And then there's some here
that have just letters,

EE or E.
-Yeah.

-What does that mean?
-That is Captain Lynn Brewer.

Lynn Brewer,
the same captain

who is investigating
Megan's disappearance.

That telephone number is
Captain Lynn Brewer?

Yeah.
That's his house phone.

Okay.
You're finding him in her book.

Yes, ma'am.

What did you do when
you figured out who it was?

Well, I called him.

You just cold-called him?

Yeah.

I said, "What in
the hell does Megan

have your home
phone number for?"

"She don't have
my home phone number!"

And I said, "Well, yes,
she does. I'm looking at it."

I said, "And I have
your cellphone number, too."

So you call him.
He's denying it.

Yes.

I received this letter
from the city solicitor

on September 17, 2013,

"Dear Ms. Lancaster,

this correspondence
is to request you refrain

from contacting the
Portsmouth Police Department."

**

Berlinger: All right.
So some of the names

in her book
are just code names...

-Yes.
-...which is kind of odd.

We have, according to Katie,
this E with this phone number

is the captain

in the Portsmouth
Police Department,

so let's just make sure
that that's accurate

because
that could be troubling,

so let's
do the number here.

**

There he is.

That's his home number.

Look.
There's...

-Yep.
-...his house.

What does that tell you?

The captain of the Portsmouth
Police Department

is in this book

where these are
her list of clients

and her list
of drug dealers.

Not everybody has a black book
with so much detail.

This could be a situation
where she may be an informant.

Ah.

**

As an informant,
you're gonna want

to keep
real detailed documents,

and she's using this code
so that no one knows --

If they find this book...
-Right.

...no one knows
who this person is.

**

Berlinger: I have heard --
You know, people have said,

"Oh, Megan,
she was a snitch."

Is it possible
that she was an informant?

Tough one to answer but I can
tell you that it's not likely.

Okay.

I mean, it's not likely that
that had anything to do

with what happened to her.

**

Berlinger: We meet with
the town judge to find out

if Megan was an informant

and if that could've been
a factor in her disappearance.

All rise.

Marshall: Please be seated.

Good morning.
-Good morning.

All right.

Hear you got a new sponsor.
-Yeah.

And how often are
you meeting with him?

I seen him
twice last week.

I've been calling him
every day.

-Talk to him every day?
-Yeah.

**

Marshall: They had posters all
over the place, "Where's Megan?"

And then I realized that girl
had been in my courtroom before.

She was a cute girl.

It's really sad.

Berlinger:
From what we have heard

about
the Megan Lancaster case,

there was some suspicion that
she might've been an informant.

Have you heard
that theory at all?

If she was, I wouldn't
know anything about it.

I don't know about
the informants

until they get to trial.

I don't want to know
their names.

I want to know
nothing about them.

If a drug dealer finds out
somebody is an informant,

the informant is in
very big trouble

right to the point
of getting killed.

[ Police radio chatter ]

Zanobi:
I know that Megan Lancaster,

she was an informant

with a couple Portsmouth
Police Department officers.

Why would Megan agree
to be an informant?

If we ever get into any trouble,
you know, free out-of-jail card.

I mean, there's a lot of
good reasons why somebody would,

but at the same time, I mean,
I would never do that

because, like,
somebody could kill you.

**

Berlinger: Zanobi's claim that
Megan Lancaster was an informant

for the Portsmouth Police

could help explain
Megan's disappearance.

**

...who knows what
happens after that?

It's very dangerous out here.

Berlinger:
We need to find out more about

how these local police
use their informants

and the dangers they face...

**

...so we meet up with Portsmouth
defense attorney Michael Mearan.

His legal work involves
many local drug addicts,

dealers, and law enforcement,

making him a potentially
valuable source of information.

Mearan:
Welcome to Mearan Law Office.

This is just accumulation

of 44 years of practice.

[ Cellphone rings ]

Brady, I can't talk.
I'm on TV.

Get here.

Berlinger:
What kind of law do you do?

Explain
what kind of law you do.

People law.
This is a people practice.

We don't represent businesses.

We represent people,
mostly criminal

or someone that needs to try
to get their children back.

We do a lot of that.

I found the best advertising
I have is, over at the jail,

I'm told, in pencil,

"Mike Mearan is a good lawyer."

And it's amazing the number
of calls I get from jail.

-Whoo!
-Hollywood!

What's going on?
Who do you need? What is this?

They just came in here and took
over the whole damn place!

Berlinger: Mike Mearan's office
is a hive of activity

buzzing with current clients,

former clients, and a variety
of part-time employees.

Brady was a prison guard
at Lucasville

and couldn't
take the pressure.

Now he's security at MLO.

Tell us your story,
young lady.

I turned 18 in prison.

I've been four times total
due to my addiction.

Berlinger:
What was your addiction?

Crack cocaine
and heroin.

How much are drugs?

Oh, I was spending
probably $500 a day.

Where are you getting
the money to do that?

Prostituting.

Pretty much would sell my soul
to the devil for it.

Woman: Absolutely.

So I'm gaining
self-respect back today.

I'm retired.

I'm a single mom, as well,
with a 9-year-old daughter.

Her daughter looks just like her
and just a gorgeous --

She walks Mike's dogs.
She works here, too.

[ Laughter ]

-I got a lot of dog walkers.
-Everybody's got a job here.

What did you guys think

when all these women
started disappearing?

I was out there then.

One of my friends
still has not been found.

Megan Lancaster,
she's been missing for,

what, 3, 4 years now,

and her family
has still not had closure.

So you knew
Megan Lancaster?

Elrod: Yes.

I grew up with Megan.

She got addicted to drugs,

and we were both
supplying our habit,

and I hate that she's missing,
and I hope they do find her.

A lot sick, twisted things has
happened to me in these streets.

Many a times, I've been beat,
raped, left for dead.

I was missing
for a week and a half

and held hostage in Kentucky.
I don't know.

I was raped and sodomized
and left --

They were gonna kill me,
and then, by the grace of God,

I was able to get loose and run.

There's a lot of sick men
out here

with a lot of sick fetishes.

I feel like there's a lot
that the police

leave out on Megan's case.

Like, when they found
her car at Rally's,

her door was wide open

like she was
yanked out of her car.

They're just letting
this case go cold,

and I feel like
they're not doing nothing.

Mearan: I knew Megan.

Megan was a very beautiful
young lady.

I don't recall ever having
a conversation with her.

I knew who she was.

I could've seen her in court.

She was involved in a case
in which I represented a client

that was charged
with selling drugs.

But other than that,
I never represented her.

**

Berlinger: Back in New York,

we go through
Megan's black book,

looking for additional clues

that might help us understand
what happened to her.

Hey, you guys
should look at this.

I'm going through Megan's
black book or notebook.

Look at that name
right there.

Mike Mearan.

Mike Mearan may have a stronger
connection to Megan Lancaster

than we were initially
led to believe.

It's troubling that he said
he didn't really know her,

you know,
so in our previous interview

that, you know,
he knew who she was

but didn't really have
a lot of knowledge.

So, you know, why is he
in her black book under,

you know, numbers for men
who give money?

Well, it could be just that
he might have

some information to offer.

It's, you know, we just need to
clarify a lot of these things.

We decide to give him a call,
hoping he can explain

why his name and number
appear in Megan's black book.

[ Line ringing ]

-Hey, Jim.
-Mike, how are you?

Mearan: Oh, okay.

You know, we've been speaking
to a whole bunch of people,

and we have lots
of different stories

from all sorts of people,

so I have to call everybody
that we've interviewed

and just kind of follow up

and, you know,
fact-check, basically.

So go ahead.

We found this document
that's Megan's kind of,

you know, black book.

Did you ever hear of this book,
this black book she had?

Yeah.

I've never seen it
or what it was. But...

Your name is in here,
so does that mean anything?

My name and how many
other people?

Well, there's quite a few,
but these are, like,

with, you know, like,
"80 bucks" next to your name.

You know, I don't know
what -- I mean,

I have loaned money
out to people.

It could've been something
where she borrowed money.

I don't know.
I have no idea.

Berlinger: While Mike Mearan
could not shed any light

on Megan's book of names,

we are getting the feeling

that he does know something
more about Megan Lancaster.

I knew Megan.
I knew Megan, Megan Lancaster.

He suggests that Megan
was involved in a drug case

that he handled.

Portsmouth is, or was,
the pill mill capital,

the center of this
opiate addiction

that spawned all of this,

and he's the leading
defense attorney

representing drug dealers,

so he's also
at the center of that.

Bongardt: And I think
the biggest thing is

we've had allegations
or people talk about

how the victims
might have been informants.

Here's an individual we can talk
to that could confirm that,

yes, one of these girls
that is missing...

-Right.
-...is an informant.

That does seem to be
an emerging thread.

And could be a motive for them
being killed as well.

He is a go-between between a lot
of these drug dealers

and the police.
-And the drug court.

And the drug court,
right.

And so I'd like to drill down
on it and talk to him.

He may have information
that could be helpful to us.

Berlinger: Could this
small-town defense attorney

be the key to understanding
what might've happened

to Megan Lancaster?

[ Police radio chatter ]

Berlinger: No one from
the police department

or the courts will corroborate
the possibility

that a local missing woman
was an informant,

but one lawyer
agrees to talk.

Mike, I would like to thank you
very much for meeting with us.

I've dealt a lot with,
for many, many years now,

with regard to informants.

We call them snitches
in the trade.

Uh-huh. Right.

They do buys
and things of the sort.

Right. Right. So I'm kind of
interested in hearing

about
the Angie Compton case

and anything to do
with Megan Lancaster.

Okay.

**

In Angie's particular case,

Megan Lancaster was the person

that if you say
set someone up,

I don't think there
was an entrapment

because Angie was
selling drugs anyway,

but it was a way of,
more or less,

catching her or doing
whatever it was.

Right after the sale,
Angie was arrested,

so it didn't
take Sherlock Holmes

to figure out
how she got arrested

and that Megan
was involved in it.

Did Megan
get any time for that?

No,
Megan, I don't think,

was charged with anything,
and I don't know.

Sometimes, back then, they even
paid informants to do that.

Bongardt: I don't want to
put words in your mouth,

but based on your knowledge

that it's possible that a motive

for her disappearance
could've been

that she was a snitch?

**

That's true.
It's possible.

Bongardt: So Michael Mearan,
that was something.

It's really, really key that
as best as we could've gotten

in that meeting with Mearan,
we have information

that Megan Lancaster
was an informant.

-Right.
-That was so important.

There was no doubt
in Mearan's mind

that Megan Lancaster
was the person

that set up Angie Compton.

There was no doubt.

Berlinger:
A potential motive is emerging.

Could these missing
and murdered women

have snitched on someone
in the drug underworld

and were silenced
in retaliation?

**

A piece of information
that Kadie had shared with us

now becomes
much more significant.

There's been
a person of interest.

His name is Ernest Moore.

Can you tell me,
do you know anything about him,

or did he have any connection
at all to Megan?

Lancaster:
I knew that he was in Portsmouth

at the time
that Megan went missing.

He was in Portsmouth the time
that Megan went missing?

And how did you
establish that?

I saw him.

Ernest "Dollar Bill" Moore

is a name that just keeps
coming up again and again.

He was part of a large
drug enterprise

that stretched
from Columbus to Chillicothe

and further south.

Lancaster: Three days
after Megan went missing

on April the 6th, 2013,

my husband and I got a call
from their cousin,

and he just said,

"I need you to get out
to this hotel.

Megan's in one of these rooms,"

and that she was
tied to a bed.

**

It was like, "Oh, my gosh.
We've got to get there."

And so when we arrived
at this hotel,

my husband went and knocked

on what could potentially
have been death's door.

He risked his life not knowing
if there were machine guns

or whatever on the other side.

116 is the door
that we knocked on,

and two men answered the door,

and my husband said,

"I heard my sister was here.

Do you guys have her?"

Well, they wouldn't
let him see in the room

except just to the bed.

**

Then, when we got home,
another phone call comes in.

It was an anonymous call.

We don't know who it was.

Said that Megan was tied
to a bed but in room 210

and that she heard
her brother outside

and that she was
screaming for me,

and...

she was no longer there.

They said that she had been
taken out in a bag,

but that she's still alive.

So we watched
this place for days,

and we started noticing things
like the two guys.

One of them had a big Suburban,

and he would always be
outside shining the wheels,

and Dollar Bill --
Dollar Bill was his name.

Berlinger:
Could Dollar Bill have abducted

and killed Megan Lancaster

and perhaps others as well?

And maybe law enforcement played
an unwitting supporting role.

Could this explain why
they have appeared reluctant

to solve these cases
in the first place?

**

Bongardt: It's very interesting
because of Dollar Bill, right?

Dollar Bill's all over
these other towns

where we have missing women.

He's connected in some way.

So we have Megan Lancaster,

last seen in Portsmouth, Ohio,
April 3rd.

Three days after that,
some period of time,

there's this surveillance.
Right?

Over a year later
is Charlotte Trego.

We have
Jason McCrary's information

that Dollar Bill was
the one that did that.

July 7th, Moore is charged
with assaulting a woman

on her porch in Chillicothe,

but chargers were dropped
when the police failed

to locate the woman
to testify against Moore.

And then, right after that,
you have the torture

of Arthur Hamlin
on July 22nd.

Genitals on fire,
you know,

raped with a broomstick,
the whole bit.

So we are coming up
with these connections

and the possibility of

Dollar Bill
having some involvement.

We really should be
looking at Dollar Bill.

Berlinger: As we seem to get
closer to finding answers,

our leads keep coming back
to Ernest "Dollar Bill" Moore.

**

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